Unclaimed Prescriptions: An Overlooked Opportunity

Farmer, Kevin C.; Gumbhir, Ashok K.

doi:10.1016/s0160-3450(15)30973-9

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Medications most frequently unclaimed were anti-infectives (differing from Britain where these are usually prescribed during a consultation). Interestingly, many similar drugs to this study, analgesics, dermatological, antiinflammatory, respiratory and cough, cold and allergy drugs, were also unclaimed (Craghead and Wartski, 1991;Farmer, 1992;Kirking and Kirking, 1993;Hamilton and Hopkins, 1997;Secnik, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Extent of uncollected prescriptions in general practice

Sherratt

Andriychenko²,

Walley

2007

PHC

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Background: A small number of prescriptions ordered by the patient from their general practice remain uncollected and hence undispensed. No research has been published on this phenomenon and on how this is managed. We aimed to evaluate this in one primary care trust. Aim: To find out what prescription items are not collected, and why. Design of study: A descriptive cross-sectional analysis of prescription data. Semistructured interviews with 21 primary health care team members, and 10 patients who had apparently not collected their prescription. Fifty-seven patients from the lead author's practice were telephoned and gave their comments. Setting: Twenty general practices in the Gateshead Primary Care Trust. Method: Nineteen practices provided suitable data for analysis from one month's uncollected prescriptions plus total items issued during the same period of time. All suitable patients who had uncollected prescriptions from 10 practices were invited to participate in a telephone interview. Similar patients from the lead author's practice were telephoned and invited to comment. Results: On average 0.5% items were uncollected. Drugs for a specific diagnosis (eg, cardiovascular drugs) were significantly less likely to be uncollected than drugs prescribed either symptomatically or for a presumptive diagnosis (0.48% versus 0.67% uncollected, respectively, P , 0.001). Many uncollected prescriptions were due to administrative causes: few resulted from patient error or forgetfulness. The majority of patients reported obtaining their medication. No adverse events arising from uncollected prescriptions were reported. Conclusion: Uncollected prescriptions are a small proportion (0.5%) of the total issued and were more likely to be for non-essential items; therefore the policy of destroying uncollected prescriptions after an appropriate period without any further action is probably safe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Extent of uncollected prescriptions in general practice

Sherratt

Andriychenko²,

Walley

2007

PHC

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“…This is similar to previous research on unclaimed prescriptions in which the classes most frequently reported as having the highest percentage of unclaimed scripts included psychiatric medications (sometimes called central nervous system [CNS] drugs), analgesics, contraceptives, and antibiotics. 1,[3][4][5]7,8,[10][11][12][13][14][15]20,26,27,41,[47][48][49] Differences in research methods between the present study and previous research may explain why antibiotics, which comprised 1.6% of unclaimed fills, were not among the top 3 unclaimed prescription classes reported for this research population. By using 12 months of data on prescription drug orders and dispensings, the present study was not affected by seasonal drug utilization that is likely more common for antibiotics than other drug classes, while other studies that use fewer than 12 months of data (in some cases, 1 or 2 months) are potentially more affected by seasonal patterns of drug use.…”

Section: ■■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Prevalence of Unclaimed Prescriptions at Military Pharmacies

Esposito¹,

Schöne²,

Williams³

et al. 2008

JMCP

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BACKGROUND: Prescriptions that are ordered by physicians but not picked up by patients represent a potential quality improvement opportunity in health systems. Previous research has demonstrated that anywhere from as little as 0.28% to as much as 30.0% of prescriptions are unclaimed, and that 0.45% to 22.0% of patients fail to claim prescriptions. In the Military Health System (MHS), prescriptions filled at military pharmacies are dispensed with no copayment, providing an opportunity to examine the factors that contribute to unclaimed prescriptions other than out-of-pocket cost.OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of unclaimed prescriptions in the MHS, investigate reasons for unclaimed prescriptions, and compare self-reported noncompliance, defined as the failure to pick up at least 1 prescription in a 12-month period, with evidence from an administrative database of prescription orders and dispensings.METHODS: Research methods included pharmacy staff interviews at 6 military pharmacies, a telephone survey of beneficiaries who filled prescriptions at these pharmacies, descriptive analysis of survey data, and comparison of administrative pharmacy data with self-reported survey data. Beneficiary interviews, conducted from May through July 2004, covered background characteristics, medical conditions, and unclaimed prescriptions, relying on 12 months of recall regarding noncompliance. Interviews with pharmacy staff covered day-to-day operations, factors that alleviate or exacerbate noncompliance, and the burden that noncompliance places on pharmacies. Administrative data from the Pharmacy Data Transaction Service (pharmacy claims) and Composite Health Care System (CHCS: prescription orders and dispensings) databases were used to select a random sample for the beneficiary survey. Survey respondents' CHCS data were matched to their responses to determine the degree of agreement between self-reports and administrative data.RESULTS: Pharmacy interviews were completed with 30 staff members at 6 military pharmacies, and telephone interviews were completed with 1,214 beneficiaries (60.6% response rate). Beneficiary respondents filled an average of 7 prescriptions in the 5 months approximately surrounding the survey administration time frame (from March to July 2004). More than half (56.8%) of respondents were female, and nearly 60.6% were retired military or their dependents. Among all respondents at all study pharmacies, 8.0% reported failing to claim at least 1 prescription during the prior 12 months. Among survey respondents deemed compliant by CHCS data, 93.8% correctly identified themselves as compliant. However, among patients identified as noncompliant using CHCS data, only 16.0% selfidentified as noncompliant. The administrative data were not concordant with self-report data: of 105 survey respondents identifying themselves as noncompliant in the prior year and matched to administrative data (CHCS), only 58.1% were noncompliant per administrative data, and of 1,065 selfidentifying as compliant, only 61.1%...

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“…In the two previous Swedish studies, unintentional primary non-compliance constituted a significant share (20-30%) of the unclaimed e-prescriptions [1], (F. Ax personal communication). It has been claimed that postcard or telephonic reminders from the pharmacy to patients may increase prescription redemption rates [12][13][14]. However, the results in previous studies are conflicting [15][16][17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%